The Internet has done wonders making travel agents obsolete, but flight-booking sites still haven’t managed to replace the one-on-one human interaction that was once a keystone of vacation planning.

This week, Orbitz may have found a way around that. The Chicago-based online travel company announced a service that lets users help each other. The Traveler Update system collects and posts user-generated tips on a range of topics, including security lines and the best places to get a snack, at more than 40 major U.S. airports. Consumers don’t have to buy tickets through Orbitz to use the service, and they can access the Traveler Update through the Orbitz site or its mobile web browser.

Orbitz Chief Marketing Officer Randy Wagner said the idea for the service “sprang from our customer insight that people value information from others in the same situation and our business insight that, at any point in time, Orbitz has thousands of customers moving through major airports and travel destinations.”

Traveler Update also includes information from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, and Weather.com, and Orbitz adds some of its own info, including lists of airport Wi-Fi hubs.

Travel analyst Kate Rice described the concept as “not a bad little experiment in viral marketing,” because the tool likely will drive traffic to the Orbitz site.

Ms. Rice said Orbitz is the first of the major online travel sites to introduce such a service and added that Orbitz has long targeted the infrequent traveler with email updates and mobile features.

Though the newbie traveler is seen as the company’s intended audience, Ms. Rice said it’s actually the frequent business traveler who is most likely to take advantage of the new service. Business travelers tend to have more leeway to change their routes or flight schedules to minimize the number of hours they’ll need to wile away in an overcrowded terminal.

As for the infrequent travelers, she said, “If security lines are long at an airport what are you going to do? Go to another airport?”